


When She Was Good

by NicoleAnell



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Community: twelvecolonies, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-09
Updated: 2010-08-09
Packaged: 2017-10-18 20:00:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/192690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NicoleAnell/pseuds/NicoleAnell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlet written for twelvecolonies "characters who never spoke" challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When She Was Good

"What do you want with him?" the president asked in a surprisingly harsh murmur. The liquor made him brave sometimes. It took the Eight a half-second to realize she was the only one in the room he could be talking to.

"Who?" she said innocently. Her hair was down and her shirt slightly mis-buttoned. This was calculated. If she wanted to hide that she'd come from Gaeta's tent, she'd hide it.

"You know who."

She shrugged, changing tactics. "It's nothing," she said, casting her eyes down knowingly. "Do you- do you think he can't trust me because I'm a Cylon?" He didn't respond to this. She pushed further. "Listen, this isn't about the occupation or anything. I think I really..." she smiled and trailed off shyly. "I just want something like you and Caprica have."

He was still getting used to this name for her. His brow furrowed for a moment, and then he smiled charmlessly. "Exactly what we have? Lovely. Shall we make out the wedding invitations before or after you burn this planet down?" She wondered how much liquor he'd _had_ today.

"Don't mock this," she said.

"He won't like you," Baltar answered. (She hadn't thought they were close, but now she wondered how much Baltar knew about him and his relationships. Or maybe she was reading too much into this; humans sometimes said things for meaningless reasons. It's more likely Baltar imagined he liked some other, unseen type of woman, when he never expressed interest in the beautiful ones that flooded the offce.) "It's not you," he added almost sympathetically, before sighing and looking out the window. "Well, you're not planning to like him either, are you?"

She flinched, offended, heartbroken. "Why would you say that?" she whispered. She was closer to his desk now and looked him deep in the eyes, wide and longing, expecting him to show the same rush of human compassion that Felix would, running his hand over her cheek. Instead something very understanding flashed on his face. Fear.

"What do you want with him?" he asked again.

She chose her words carefully, hovering on the edge of sincere. "He has certain... sympathies. Connections." She bit her lip. "Please don't tell anyone, they'd kill him."

He shook his head and studied her. "Mr. Gaeta is as loyal to this administration as..." his eyes darted for an instant, wavering -- "anyone else." She didn't suppress her smile at his small backpedal, not willing to align himself quite _that_ hard with him. "If he's guilty of anything, it's only an extraordinary track record of being blinded by hope."

She nodded, locking this in. "You're right," she said finally, standing up straighter and dropping the simper. "I didn't plan to like him very much." She was pleased to see how unnerved and defeated he looked by the confirmation, even after all this.

"I'd think our prisons are filling themselves quickly enough without bringing entrapment into the mix," he said in a low voice.

She smiled. Him, she did like sometimes. "Suppose he starts giving me names," she said, like it was a hypothetical game, because she liked how tortured it made the president look. "Let's say they're his friends, and they're also terrorists. You want me to be softer with him?"

"I'm not talking about softer," he insisted. "You could be _smarter_ with him. Anything he gives you is something you can use, isn't it? It's... useful."

She knew what he was doing, staring into some private abyss, but all the same it hadn't occurred to her exactly that way. It was something to consider.


End file.
